What To Do With Myself Now The Kids Are Getting Older?

Next week the girls go back to school and Layla will start doing more hours at playschool now that she receives 15 free hours each week. This is a huge help to us not having to pay for playschool right now as the husbands wages have gone down yet the bills have predictably gone up. It was also a huge reminder of just how fast my children are growing up!

Free School Dinners, Not As Good As They Sound

This month saw all key stage one children in English schools given the chance to eat a hot meal at school for free every day.

The scheme is expected to save parents like myself £400 a year per child.

Now in theory this sounds great but I'm not convinced.

Here are just three reasons that have me questioning the scheme and its intentions.

The Cost

Well we are told it is free but lets be honest, nothing where the government is concerned is really free. I mean we'll be paying for this through our taxes.

And in that case I'd like to know why school meals can't be free across the board.

At the moment I have three children at school, one in reception, one in year 2 and one in year 4. Meaning that two of my children get free meals whilst the other I'd have to pay for.

This something I can't afford, now for some it might not seem a lot of money to pay out but to me it is, I just can't budget in another bill. This means that my eldest has to have a packed lunch, luckily she is an easy going child and doesn't mind.

However I'm sure there are children out there who wouldn't be so happy if put in the same situation.

It was general secretary Christine Bower that said, "children do not stop being hungry at seven years of age".